Wednesday, December 16, 2015

“You are home – welcome home,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in
greeting the first planeload of Syrian refugees to Canada.

Trudeau
and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne were at Toronto’s Pearson International
Airport as the first military flight of 163 Syrians arrived from Beirut.

The
new Liberal government said it will resettle 25,000 refugees escaping Syria’s civil
war by the end of February.

Upon arrival, they were given winter clothing and housed in an airport
hotel before being transported this weekend to sponsored housing in British
Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.

During
processing in Toronto and Montreal, the new arrivals are being given Social
Insurance Numbers so they can work, government health-insurance cards for
“free” medical care and become permanent residents.

First to be greeted was Kevork Jamkossian, his wife Georgina
Zires and 16-month-old daughter, Madeleine, clutching a teddy bear given
to her by Wynne.

“We
suffered a lot but now we feel as if we got out of hell and we came to
paradise,” he said.